There is Hope
by The-Future-Is-Now
Summary: Harry Potter has seen the last remaining soul fragment of Voldemort's. And he pity's it.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Summary: Harry Potter has seen the last remaining soul fragment of Voldemort's. And he pity's it.

Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I know what you're thinking, "What happened to AoS?" Well, rest assured I am working on the story and will continue it. I've just been doing A LOT of things but have finally found some free time. So expect an update next weekend ;)

Enjoy!

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Harry stared at the-_thing-_ that lay on the floor. Its skin was reptilian; green and filled with scales so enticing to touch, yet so disgusting to observe. Its face, so unlike that of a baby, lacking a nose, lacking a smooth complexion, lacking anything to hint at its infancy was wailing endlessly; ugly in it suffering. Harry simply stared at it.

He stared far too long; his face questioning, even concerned. It took him far too long to realize this _creature _was in fact a _child._ It was haphazardly lying under a chair. Seeing it forgotten, so beaten, made Harry shiver with something akin to disgust, and perhaps pity.

He made a move towards the child.

"You cannot help it, Harry." The man turned. Dumbledore sat on a bench, smiling as though they were in his office once again and not in this strange cloudy abyss. Harry frowned. Slowly, around him, the cloudy abyss formed into what familiarly looked like King's Cross. The train appeared, silent but still smoking at the top. Harry stood in front of it, between Dumbledore and the wailing creature.

"Why not?" Harry asked, standing frozen in place. He took another step forward, as if daring the old man to make a comment.

"Because it is less than human. It has made itself less than human." Dumbledore replied, eyeing the Boy Who Lived wearily. He did not make a move to stand up; his blue eyes had lost their mischievous glint. The smile was still set on his face, but only superficially happy.

Harry took another step forward; the _thing_ continued to wail.

"Everything can be saved, sir. Not everyone is set in what they will and will not be." Harry took another step; he was only five if not three simple steps away from it.

But he felt something, some invisible force, pulling him back.

"My boy-"

"What?" Harry retorted, eyebrows furrowed. His legs were firmly planted in place; he had no control. He frowned, tugging at his leg with all the strength he could muster.

"If you decide to help the creature, then all this will disappear. It will die, whether or not you go towards it. And once you leave, either on that train or on to life, it will no longer exist." Dumbledore's face was stoic; his mouth was now a thin line that held no further advice for the man.

Harry glared at him for a moment. After everything he had been through with him, this man Harry thought he loved was presenting him with an ultimatum that he could not accept.

Not yet anyway.

Harry struggled, his legs became numb; his scar began to sting.

"I just-"

He pulled one leg free. A triumphant grin appeared on his face.

"Want-"

The other leg followed.

"To say-" his voice was strained now, only one more step; he would not give up.

"Goodbye!"

He pulled the other leg free, the adjacent leg budged as well; Harry tumbled to the floor.

He gasped; the baby suddenly ceased to cry.

"As you wish, Harry." Dumbledore replied, his voice betraying his disappointment. Harry turned his head, glaring at the now disappearing figure.

"You know what you must do."

And Dumbledore was gone.

Harry pulled himself up and crawled the remaining distance to the chair. He sat, crossing his legs. He pulled the now silent child to him, arms encircled around the creature in an affectionate way.

"I understand now" he began, looking at the serpentine child. It slit like eyes gazed curiously at him; eyes too intelligent for a child to posses. Looking at those eyes, Harry knew the child understood his words. So he continued.

"I know your weakness; I traveled to places beyond to capture and destroy your weakness, but never did I think I would see it in such an innocent form." The baby just stared. Harry sighed. He continued.

"I have been told that you lacked love, and from the beginning that lack of emotion from others turned you into what you are."

"You were born into a parentless life; your mother died and your father was heartless. The orphanage that you stayed in only furthered this lack; you were surrounded by children, by adults who hated you, who did not care to help you, to show you love."

"Once you entered Hogwarts, your mind was already so adapted to no affection, no caring, that you simply did what you were created to do, what people allowed you to become.

Do I blame you? No. You couldn't understand the beauty behind friendship, because never once in your life did you experience it. You could not understand love, because never once did you catch even a hint of it.

Does that justify your evil? Not entirely, but it explains it.

I can't be wholly angered by you. I cannot be completely and totally hateful towards you.

I understand you too much.

You never learned companionship; you were only taught that fear serves as loyalty, and so created your Death Eaters out of a skewed mentality that was allowed to grow and exist in your mind.

You were never truly angered by muggleborns and muggles; you were only angered at your father and at yourself. You hated him for deserting your mother; to the point where you killed him. In the back of your mind you knew if things had turned out different; if your mother were stronger, you would have lead a different life.

You hated her weakness; and so you destroyed the weak among you. The muggles who were powerless against you represented the father you hated and the mother you did not have.

Muggles and muggleborns; anything related to those human beings that lacked magic that had anything to do with what you hated; that is what you attacked, what you despised.

You split your soul- because you hated weakness. You did not want anything to do with the mother who died because of her naivety. Because of her obsessive love.

Her weakness of love and death served as the foundation to your fears of attachment and fears of leaving this world. Other simply let it grown.

So can I really blame you for it?

I saw what you were like all those years ago. You still had a chance; there was still time for change, you were still young.

You had so much potential."

"And now," Harry said, cradling the child in his arms, "looking at your innocent form, seeing that you still had something small, and pure within you, I understand."

The child analyzed Harry. His eyes were no longer slit-like, but normal. They were rounded, even sweet, and began to take the form of innocence which had been lost in them before. They were colored amber.

And its skin was no longer rough to touch.

Harry continued, smiling slightly at the changes, perhaps….

"I wanted to take this moment to let you know that I understand you. I see what you should have had; what your life could have been. I have fought you for so long, but maybe this will help you. Even if it seems too late."

He brought the child up towards him, facing it eye to eye. It now looked like a regular babe. If not only for its green tinted skin.

Harry pressed his lips against the child's forehead.

"_I_ love you. _I_ love you with my entire being. I have since the day I first saw your teenage form. Since the day I realized what you could have been."

"I realized that you were a boy who had undergone too much damage. Your evil was not genetic, it was created. And since that day I had grown to understand that maybe, just maybe, there is still a chance for you."

"Perhaps your body, the Voldemort of today, cannot be changed. He is too intoxicated with evil."

"But this soul is not."

Harry cradled the child once more; it was whole, complete. It was a child. Not a serpent, but a child.

"If you can't return to the living; at least do well with the dead." Harry whispered, pulling the child into an embrace before standing up. He walked over to the bench where Dumbledore had sat and placed the child neatly onto the bench. It lay there, body turned towards him. The baby boy stared at him, a small smile tugging at its lips.

"Goodbye." Harry said.

And he too, disappeared.

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Please review :)

~prongs-risque


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